The Great Sheffield art show and Sunfest beer festival at the Rising Sun

6 07 2008

Celebrating art and beer: two things to do this weekend

Looking for a piece of original artwork to hang in your home? The Great Sheffield art show, now in its is twentieth year, is reportedly the largest art show in the north of England featuring over 1,400 exhibits and attracting thousands of visitors. It takes place 11-13 July at the Octagon building, University of Sheffield, although if you are quick you may get tickets for the preview night on Thursday.

It is good that semi-professional and amateur artists have got a platform to display and perhaps sell their work, while for visitors it is a chance to pick up an original piece from an artist you may not have otherwise come across.

And after you’ve been to the art show, why not pop in to the Rising Sun pub in Nether Green for the second annual Sunfest beer festival, which runs from 10-13 July?

In April I had the pleasure of attending the first (and last) annual beer festival at the Moon pub in Netherthorpe before it closed. Abbeydale brewery, the company behind both both pubs, has since been forced to close the Moon due to ongoing losses.

Luckily, the Rising Sun - and the brewery for that matter - are both still profitable businesses but I am sure they would appreciate the support all the same. And besides, it is good fun, even if like me, you know very little about real ale.


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Rolling down the London Road

20 05 2008

London Road by Neil McSweeney

When writing my recent post about Sheffield’s Chinatown, it got me thinking of a great song called London Road by local singer-songwriter Neil McSweeney.

It is a fantastic, moving track that name-checks the major Sheffield street (slide show) and is currently available to hear on his MySpace page and also to buy from iTunes.

Neil is also playing on this Saturday at the SPLAYD music festival at the Shakespeare, alongside the lovely Nat Johnson.

Sitting in the park, passing time
Watching stars with a bottle of wine
You notice something in my smile

So we head off into town
Just in time for kicking out
Call a friend but there’s no reply
They’re never about but it was worth a try

We go rolling down the London Road
Though we know it’s not the best way home
Sat on a corner staring at our shoes
Sick to my guts for the love of you

Well the garage up ahead closed down
But the petrol smell still hangs around
And you don’t like it like I do

Singing about the hip lap drive
and I can’t dance to save my life
I never felt more like I wanted to
Still something tells me not to

We go rolling down the London Road
Though we know it’s not the best way home
Sat on a corner staring at our shoes
Sick to my guts for the love of you


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Should part of London Road become Chinatown?

17 05 2008

Would Sheffield’s Chinatown bring benefits to the city or create an ethnic ghetto?

Over the last few years there have been various reports regarding a proposal to officially designate an area of the city as Chinatown, although to date nothing concrete has been formally decided.

It is thought that any such development would be based around the London Road/Highfield area, a district that has traditionally been home for a number of Sheffield’s Chinese community. Three-and-a-half hectares has been earmarked for various restaurants, bars, a business centre and maybe a hotel.

Reactions to plan are varied. On one hand it is thought such an area would celebrate the neighbourhood’s diversity while developing tourism and boosting local businesses. Internationally, it could make Sheffield a more attractive proposition for Chinese investors, plus it may help draw in students from China to the city’s universities.

There are also reservations regarding the scheme and questions to be answered. London Road is presently home for multi-cultural mix of people from all over the world, so is it right to focus on one culture, creating an area just representing the Chinese? What would the impact be on a non-Chinese restaurant located within Chinatown?

Many of the famous Chinatowns of the world have been naturally created in port cities by immigrants; would manufacturing one in Sheffield be “fake”? Or does the fact that the idea has come from Sheffield’s Chinese community give it sufficient credibility? There is no mention of the scheme in the city centre masterplan, although of course not all of London Road is classed as being in the city centre.

In principal I’m cautiously in favour of the idea of Sheffield having a Chinatown, although it would need to be implemented with care and in full consultation with all existing residents, community groups, businesses and other stakeholders. If an agreeable and inclusive solution can be found then it could become an asset to the city.

Walking the dragon
Image by bits of rubble and used under Creative Commons license


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Categories : city centre masterplan, development, drink, food, planning, pubs, regeneration, restaurants, sheffield

Free wi-fi hotspots in Sheffield

2 05 2008

Where can you get free wi-fi in Sheffield - and which UK city will be the first to embrace the concept of free municipal wi-fi for all?

It was election day yesterday and in London the speculation continues over whether Ken or Boris will be crowned Lord Mayor for the capital. While these two have had all the press coverage, one of Lib Dem candidate Brian Paddick’s election pledges was that London would be one of the first cities in the world to have free, municipal wi-fi.

There are pockets of support in cyberspace for the idea of free municipal wi-fi in city centres, and I think that this is something that Sheffield could look at in order to further assist it’s burgeoning reputation as a creative city, one with the digital industries a priority for those in charge.

At the moment, how does Sheffield rate for free wi-fi hotspots? Although it is hard to accurately and quickly asses, I think it could do much better. Yesterday, I enjoyed a pint of Beerworks Mild* in Ruskins bar, Tudor Square, where there is free unencrypted wi-fi for customers. But finding this hotspot wasn’t that easy, as there doesn’t seem to be a definitive list out there of locations with free wi-fi.

Hopefully, one day Sheffield will have free municipal free wi-fi in the city, but in the meantime I have created a page listing some free wi-fi hotspots in Sheffield.

* an Abbeydale brewery beer, apparently brewed only for the second time ever this May


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Categories : beer, development, digital industries, drink, pubs, restaurants, sheffield, technology, wifi

Victoria quays and the Sheffield city centre masterplan

17 04 2008

An updated version of the masterplan details plans for how one redeveloped but undervalued corner of the city may finally be properly integrated with Sheffield city centre

The other day I downloaded a copy of the Sheffield city centre masterplan executive summary (1.5Mb, PDF) - the full 122-page, 3.2Mb PDF is also available if you fancy some hefty bedtime reading.

It begins by looking at what has been achieved since the original masterplan was unveiled in 2000, which by all accounts is impressive. In the last 10 years, parts of the city centre have changed almost unrecognisably, with the creation of several world-class urban spaces of which Sheffielders can be proud.

As the updated masterplan recognises, there is still plenty to do though. One of the projects that caught my eye was the continuing plans for the Victoria quays canal basin area.

From 1992–1994, this area was redeveloped, with warehouses restored, offices built and a marina created on one side of the basin. Shops, pubs, restaurants and hotels set up business and a number of residential developments have also since been located there.

The problem is, although the regeneration of Victoria quays is impressive, hardly anyone I know actually bothers to go down there. Other cities such as Newcastle, Liverpool and even Salford have redeveloped their quay sides to create leisure destinations for the day and night, but for some reason Sheffield’s canal basin has never properly caught on as a place to spend significant time and money.

I think one issue is the perceived distance of Victoria quays from the city centre. Although not actually that far, unless you shop in the markets area, the canal basin doesn’t really appear on your radar. Plus of course it is on the other side of Park square roundabout, which doesn’t help.

The good news is that with the new masterplan, it looks like planners in the city are recognising the importance of integrating this waterside area with the centre of town. It is proposed that a new pedestrian spine route will connect Victoria quays and Fargate to form part of a “new pedestrian axis” through the city centre.

What’s more, a new destination is to be created, which will include Victoria Square, a park around the ruins of Sheffield castle, contemporary architecture and existing heritage buildings.

All this bodes well and suggests that Victoria quays may yet become a place that is no longer considered too far out of the way for people to visit, and one that contributes further to the regeneration of the city.

Map of proposed Victoria Quays/Castlegate development, Sheffield


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The Moon, Sheffield, first annual beer festival

24 03 2008

What better way to spend the holiday weekend than visiting a local beer festival?

The beer of choice for a group of my friends and I is currently Abbeydale Moonshine (4.3%). It is a very easy-drinking straw-coloured ale and seems to be found in an increasing number of pubs around the city. As with many real ales, attention to detail has also been paid to the artwork on the pump clip and Moonshine is no exception, with a pleasing blue gothic design.

Now I am by no means a beer aficionado, have never been a member of CAMRA and due to the fact I would generally normally buy a non-premium lager or smooth-flow bitter, I have a pretty undeveloped real ale palette. However when flicking through a local beer-lover’s newsletter in the Washington we spotted that a beer festival was taking place at Abbeydale brewery’s Moon pub in Sheffield over Easter and decided it was worth a visit.

Formerly the Office, the Moon pub on Upperthorpe Road was taken over by Abbeydale Brewery in May 2007 and it looks like it is doing quite well, despite it not really being a destination pub in a central location.

It offers a good selection of local real ale all year round, but over festival weekend there were over 50 beers on offer, including 12 from breweries within 20 miles of the pub and then 39 from further afield. Armed with a £1.50 festival glass (printed with the cool gothic logo), the beers I sampled were:

Absolution (Abbeydale), 5.3%
Bee-Ale Z’Bub (Abbeydale), 6%
Double Sunset (Leek), 5%
Shacklers Gold (Hopshackle), 5.2%
Chatsworth Gold (Peak), 4.6%
Bravo (Pictish), 4.7%
Last Rites (Abbeydale), 12%

I think my favourite beers were the fruity Absolution and also Double Sunset. We saved the 12% Last Rites for a treat at the end of the night. The initial general consensus was that it seemed quite nice with a sweet taste but the more mouthfuls we had, the less easily it went down. By the end of the half, the syrupy consistency and sickly sweet alcoholic taste became overpowering and we were glad to finish it. Definitely worth trying though, and for such a strong beer, relatively drinkable.

So overall a good night out - plus a bit of money was raised for charity. And full marks to friendly staff at the pub: at the end of the night we left without our festival glasses but we popped in on Sunday afternoon to pick them up and they were more than happy to sort us out.

Sister Abbeydale brewery pub The Rising Sun at Fulwood is hosting a beer festival in the sunshine from 10-13 July 2008 - I for one will definitely be there, with my gothic festival glass in hand.

moonfestival.jpg

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City of Sheffield city centre walkabout (walkabout)

19 03 2008

Exploring the city centre, 1970s style

A few months ago I was given a fantastic item that had been found on eBay - a copy of the early-1970s City of Sheffield city centre walkabout walkabout book (I think the double walkabout in the title is actually a stylistic design feature on the cover).

This publication (rrp 25p) was produced by what I assume was the council marketing department in those days, the quaintly-named Sheffield City Promotions Committee. On the inside front cover, they write:

The aim of this publication is to act as a guide to visitors for a walking tour of the Central Area of Sheffield. The tour, which takes just over an hour at a leisurely walking pace, is intended to show both civic and other important buildings and landmarks, not only of yesteryear, but also some of the more modern counterparts of recent times. At the same time, it is hoped to show some of the Sheffield’s character in its local environment, brought about by the effects of ambitious building schemes and town planning since 1945 together with the clean air legislation in 1972 which led to Sheffield’s claim as being ‘the cleanest industrial city in Europe‘.

Reading the brochure I can’t help but think of the ‘City on the move’ film that opened The Full Monty, as the tone really lends itself to being read in a received pronunciation public service-style voice.

I’m sure copies of this publication from ‘yesteryear’ are quite scarce now, so I’ve pulled together my favourite quotes here:

City of Sheffield city centre walkaboutTown hall extension “This effect, together with leaded roofing are (sic) intended to blend two contrasting styles of building”

Crucible theatre “several television spectaculars have taken place here”

Shopping “Sheffield now has more departmental stores than any other city north of London”

Fargate “A quiet resting place for the weary visitor”

Chapel Walk “has more than a hint of a cosmopolitan atmosphere”

Dove and Rainbow pub “where you are more than likely to hear the chatter of journalists, reporters and other media people during weekday lunchbreaks”

Parkway “It is now possible to drive to either London or Newcastle in under three hours via the motorway network direct from that point”

Ramp near Castle Square “Castle Square’s function as a traffic roundabout can best be viewed from this point” - this view is obviously one not to miss!


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Categories : council, environment, history, promotions, pubs, sheffield, walking